B.I.Y. (Brew It Yourself)

A defining ethos of the new Brooklyn is do-it-yourself: why buy a jar of pickles when you can grow your own cucumbers, brine your own water, and then pickle them yourself? Same goes for beer—brew-it-yourself is the new “support your local craft brewery.” Brick-and-mortar outposts like Bitter and Esters, which opened soft in July on the Prospect Heights-Crown Heights border, teach the classes and sell the supplies that will enable you to cook up your own Lavatory Lager. Aside from its winemaking class, what sets B&E apart from competitors—like Brooklyn Homebrew in Gowanus—is that they allow customers to brew batches in the store, for those of us with apartments too cramped to run a small fermentation operation (or with roommates who might purloin a parlor-brewed pilsner, like the squirrels that nab our garden tomatoes). “More and more people want to take ownership for their food and drink,” B&E’s Douglas Amport told us. “Making and sharing your home-brewed beer gives you a sense of pride. It gives people the opportunity to share with their friends and say, ‘I made that.’”